1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to guards for valves having rotating valve elements such as butterfly valves, ball valves, etc. Such valves comprise a valve body having a flowway therethrough with the valve element disposed in the flowway to open and close the flowway by rotating the valve element between open and closed valve positions which are usually 90.degree. apart. A valve stem rigidly connected to the valve element extends out through the valve body along the axis of the valve element generally perpendicular to the axis of the flowway. A valve handle is rigidly affixed to the outer part of the valve stem. By turning the valve handle, the handle, stem and valve element are all rotated about their common axis to open or close the valve. It will be appreciated that the valve handle will preferably be disposed in an easily accessible location. However, this expedient has the disadvantage of leaving the valve handle vulnerable to accidental movement as well as to deliberate unauthorized tampering.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the past, various seals, locks, guards, etc. have been developed for the handles of rotating valves. These have suffered from various disadvantages. For example, some guards, while fairly effective in preventing accidental movement or tampering by young children, can be readily released by an adult or older child without any special tools and thus allow deliberate tampering. Other guards are so designed that they must be completely removed from the valve for changing of the valve position by an authorized person. Many such guards were designed for one particular type of valve handle and are not readily applicable or adaptable to other types. Still another undesirable feature of most of the prior valve guards, locks, etc. is that they are relatively complicated and/or expensive to manufacture.